Just for the last 5-10 years. Before, BTC was cool.
Now there doesn’t seem to be any use case other than hoping it goes up higher, and enabling crime.
Not really.
NIST has a good blockchain explainer with a handy flowchart that has questions you should ask to see if blockchain is a useful solution:
* PNG flowchart: https://csrc.nist.gov/CSRC/media/Projects/enhanced-distribut...
* https://csrc.nist.gov/Projects/enhanced-distributed-ledger-t...
* https://www.nist.gov/blockchain
And other things are probably a better fit for the majority of people's needs.
I understand this can be just as easily done with banking system in more developed countries but blockchain is much better other parts of the world